Hate crime growth tracked by prosecution IT

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is using its £200m Compass electronic case management system to allow it to track the rise in racial, religious and homophobic hate crimes in the UK.

The Compass system was introduced by the CPS to cut down on the paper trail that can delay trials by allowing prosecutors, case workers and administrators to access a central case history for the defendant and cross-check for repeat offences and associated crimes.

Nearly three million cases have now been registered on the system built by LogicaCMG since it went live at the end of 2003 with 7,598 people using it across the CPS as of March 2005.

Now Compass is being used to help the CPS track the rise in the relatively new category of hate crimes, such as racist or homophobic attacks, according to the CPS' annual report out this week.

According to the report: "There have been a number of updates this year including the introduction of markers for different hate crime categories so that these can be effectively monitored."

The report reveals that the wider use of Compass and "exploiting the advantages of new technology in administration and frontline operations" will be key in the CPS hitting its target of £34m savings by March 2008, set after its efficiency review.

A CPS pilot is also underway in Humberside to test an electronic interface between the National Strategy for Police Information Systems, case preparation and case management systems, which is part of the plan for a joined up national criminal justice IT system.

The annual report also revealed that the use of secure email for the exchange of confidential case information has increased across the criminal justice system in the past year and that the CPS is working with other prosecuting authorities to explore the wider use of IT for the electronic presentation of evidence in court.